La Photographie Moderne

Hey are you coming over tonight?"

  "I would love to come over and cook for you both. What would you like?"

  "How about your wonderful spaghetti with a green salad and garlic bread. I'm craving it."

  "Okay, I'll stop by the store and pick up everything and go over there around 4:30 p.m."

  "That'll be great. I'll be home around 5:30 p.m."

  "I can entertain your mother."

  "I am sure she'll be entertaining you with her stories.

  "I'll have a wonderful time I am sure. Does she like wine?"

  "She loves sweet wine, buy some Riesling."

  "Okay."

  "We talked for a little bit this morning, before I left for work. I thought she would be asleep, but she was up."

  "The time change, she will have to get used to it."

  "I hope she's all rested. I need a day off. I might take off Friday, we can sleep in and watch movies and eat smart junk food."

  "If you want to, we can. I can take off myself. You know me, don't always have to have the shop open, I can close or call Trevor to watch it for me."

  "Good enough, we'll spend Friday doing nothing. I can't wait. I'll see you soon, have to go."

  "See you tonight." Reason hung up. How much fun he thought, he could find out about Didier's mother. He would go shopping around 4 p.m.

  He knew it would be a slow day now. A few people came in to browse, nothing was bought, not even honor or saint hood. He didn't mind, he enjoyed watching the people, which he could watch from his desk in the back and a two-way mirror that was facing them.

  He closed the shop and stopped at the supermarket to pick up the ingredients needed for his spaghetti and a bottle of Riesling and a bottle of Chardonnay and a bottle of Pinot Noir. He was at Didier's by 4:30 p.m. ready to cook and entertain.

  "Hello Catherine!"

  "Why hello, you're right on time. Didier called and told me you were coming over to make dinner and visit. I was just taking a bath and now I am refreshed and ready for some wine. Did you bring some?"

  "Why of course I brought wine, some Riesling for you and Chardonnay for me." Reason said with a smile.

  "It's not five o'clock yet, but back east it is." Catherine said with a grin. "I usually don't drink until after 5 p.m."

  "I don't usually drink till afternoon." Reason said with a bigger grin. "Now, do you like spaghetti with turkey sausage, mushrooms and black olives, and a chilled salad with sliced red onion, avocado, asiago cheese and cucumbers with my own dressing, and some French toast with fresh garlic and grated parmesan cheese?"

  "I love Italian food. Especially home made."

  "You'll love mine then. I use only the freshest ingredients, except for the sauce. I use fresh Tomatoes, some Tomato paste and a jar of this low-sodium sauce. It gives it the flavor, but I don't like to use too much jar sauce. I love fresh Tomatoes. I also use very lean turkey sausage, not ground beef here, but love a good New York strip steak any night of the week, marinated and grilled on the barbeque with butter.

  Now you can open the wine and I will start. I also buy the precut mixed lettuce bags, they are wonderful. This Santa Barbara mix is my favorite. Some fresh French bread, it's still warm." Reason shuffled around the kitchen, while Catherine opened the wines and poured them each a glass respectively.

  "Would you like to hear a story?" Catherine said with the air of mystery.

  "Oh yes, I love stories, especially about the south." Reason exclaimed.

  "Well it all started long, long ago in New Orleans, Louisiana around 1925. It was a cool spring day, and Mrs. Odette was sitting on her veranda enjoying the afternoon breeze. She was waiting for her daughters. Who were getting ready for a grand ball. It was the party of the year, hosted by none other than Mrs. Margaux Dubois.

  She was turning 18 and had a wonderful suitor from Oklahoma City, a man from a wealthy family. The following year would be their engagement. So all the families and townsfolk were in invited to Hortense Plantation for Mrs. Dubois's party. Josette and Jacqueline were all excited as they would be going to their first party with a suitor proper. Josette was 17 and a half herself and Jacqueline was just 16. During those times that was just the time for the ladies to start dating."

  Reason was so intrigued, "I only thought stories like this happened in books, the classics. Carry on, my dear, I love it."

  "Well as I was saying, it was their first dates, proper. Oh they had had suitors come over for lunch on Sundays, many times, but never had they gone to a social event with one. Yes, it was a big deal. They had spent all day getting ready for this special occasion. Now Mrs. Odette was sitting on the porch, taking a break from all the hustle and bustle of her two daughters. She knew that they were growing up and it made her sad. Her two little girls were going to be getting married soon and then the grand-children would come, then little darlings running around with curls and smiles.

  This was a sad moment for her because she was also so vain and everyone in town knew this and knew how she hated to grow old. When the time was ready she would go back into the house to see her daughters. They would need some advice about men and being ladies. She went up the grand staircase slowly. She entered the room and they were dressed and ready and look magnificent. Tears came to her eyes.

  She approached them and told them when she had her very first grand ball when she was their age. She had fallen madly in love with this young gentleman on their very first dance. She wanted to marry him. However, her parents saw different and insisted she marry another, their father. She had regretted that all her life. She told them to follow their hearts and only to let love lead them and to listen to no one and no reason."

  "Oh that is so romantic and did they?"

  "As a matter of fact they did and both of them were my grand-mother's best friends growing up. That's how I know the story so well."

  "Fascinating. That's why Annabelle never married; she fell in love with a man who was going to marry another woman and would not renege. She claims she never stopped loving him."

  "Oh the poor dear."

  "She had many offers, but refused all of them. She wanted to marry for love, like our mother Laura had married Keith, against her father's wishes."

  "Yes, Didier told me the whole story."

  "That was good of him, he tends to be too private sometimes, at least when he was a boy."

  "So let's talk about the lighthouse and the winery?" Reason changed the subject abruptly.

  "Now when I was a little girl, I came to California with my father and sister. We were here for a short time, and I was so young I can't recall it so well, it's a mystery to me."

  "Well let's go for a drive up there the following weekend, maybe leave on a Thursday morning, and we can go check out the winery and the lighthouse."

  "Well if Didier doesn't mind, I would love to go up there."

  "I am sure Didier can let you go for a few days. He needs to catch up on some work too."

  "Oh I hope so."

  "Okay then, next weekend. I will book us 2 rooms at the lovely King's Cross Bed & Breakfast. You'll love it. I will rent a car;

  "Are you sure Didier won't mind us traipsing off for a whole weekend? I just arrived and he may not want me to go." Catherine said with a sweet tone of voice.

  "Don't you worry about Didier." Reason said, not thinking that may have sounded bad, just the truth. After all Didier enjoyed being alone sometimes, just like most people, Reason said to himself. That was reassuring himself.

  "We can pick up a new book to read too. I am almost finished with my current novel, and want a good mystery to read. Didier said you enjoyed reading too."

  "I do love to read and I want to get a good biography, maybe of Katharine Hepburn. I always admired her as a strong woman. Do you think they might have one?"

  "Oh yes," Reason smiled, "I think they might have more than one about her." He was delighted that Catherine enjoyed reading, and biographies, even more impressive. He had read one about Tennessee Wil
liams, a while back, and loved every word of it.

  "More wine?"

  "Sure, I'll have another."

  "I like to drink coffee black sometimes in the evening, but for my morning ritual, real milk and Sweet-N-Low. Did you know that brown sugar, is just regular sugar with molasses sprayed on it? Can you believe that?"

  "Oh yes, I learned that when I took a class in baking at college." Catherine said.

  "You went to college?" Reason asked with excitement, again.

  "Oh yes, I went to a junior college and took many classes on art, history, cooking, and even psychology. I loved it. Then I met Didier's father and we got married and I became a housewife. Which I loved to do. I really wanted to be an interior designer. I took some classes during the day, when Didier was in school, and I never told his father." Catherine laughed out loud when she said this.

  "You never told his father? How much fun. Why not?" Reason asked quizzically.

  "Oh he didn't need to know everything I did. I went to some clubs, and luncheons, he knew about those, but that was my own thing. I needed it to be just for me. I never told Didier either." Catherine smiled again.

  "This is so much fun, talking to you. Now you'll have to come down to the gallery sometime and we can go shopping and have lunch."

  Just then Didier walked in. "Hello, I am home."

  "We are in here," Reason said in a louder voice.

  Didier came in with his briefcase, he looked tired.

  "Hello dear, are you tired?"

  "Yes I am beat, how's dinner? Do I have time to take a quick shower?"

  "Oh sure, dinner won't be ready for another 20 minutes. The sauce is